Analog almost "gone"

[Mike Hollingshead]

This might be a warning or a waste of a thread, I'm not sure yet. Browsing phones I'm noticing a LOT no longer supporting analog. I guess the reason is *most* don't need that support. If you chase in the boonies like most of us, my guess is you might want to get a phone that supports analog. It seems crazy to me so many phones have left it off. Looks like all the Razr's I've looked at do not have any analog functionality.

Now I'm confused. One forum made it sound like dual mode you still can get analog via cdma 800(I've seen cdma 800, cdma 1900, and analog called trimode.....and many phones just listing the cdma 800, cdma 1900.....and figured that was just dual and no analog option then).

So if you get a phone with just cdma 800/1900 that is dual mode correct, and you can't then get an analog connection?

 

[B Ozanne]

This might be a warning or a waste of a thread, I'm not sure yet. Browsing phones I'm noticing a LOT no longer supporting analog. I guess the reason is *most* don't need that support. If you chase in the boonies like most of us, my guess is you might want to get a phone that supports analog. It seems crazy to me so many phones have left it off. Looks like all the Razr's I've looked at do not have any analog functionality.

Now I'm confused. One forum made it sound like dual mode you still can get analog via cdma 800(I've seen cdma 800, cdma 1900, and analog called trimode.....and many phones just listing the cdma 800, cdma 1900.....and figured that was just dual and no analog option then).

So if you get a phone with just cdma 800/1900 that is dual mode correct, and you can't then get an analog connection?

I think your last point is correct. 800/1900 refers to two digital modes. Tri-mode CDMA phone refers to 800/1900 and analog.

A tri-mode or quad-mode GSM phone refers to just the digital bandwidths they use...no analog involved.

 

[Andrew Herron]

Cingular is still supporting analog, but I think you have to have both an account and a phone already in the system. My mom and dad still have old Ameritech analog phones! They actually have to now pay a monthly fee because they are using analog.

 

[Bill Hark]

Mike, you are right. Analog is almost gone. I have Verizon and there are only about two or three available phones that still support analog. Many of the salesmen are either clueless or lie as I have heard several say analog doesn't exist anymore. One got really mad at me when I overheard him tell some lady who lived in a rural area that there was no analog and she should buy the much more expensive phone. I told her the real story and he glared at me. I laughed.

There are still some areas of Virginia and other states that are analog only. If your phone is only digital then you are out of luck. In addition to a chasing issue, it is also a safety issue. I only looked at analog capable phones. My phone is a LG5300.
http://reviews.cnet.com/LG_VX5300/4505-6454_7-32044190.html?tag=pdtl-list
Note that CNET lists AMPS as one of the bands indicating analog capability. The downside is that the higher level phones with more cool features do not have analog capability. Supposedly, analog will be turned off in 2008 and we'll have no choice. In the meantime, I suggest sticking with analog capable phones.

Bill Hark

 

[James Siler]

Mr. Hollingshead, I can tell you with great confidence that Cingular (now the New...Old AT& something or other) will be shutting off Analog and TDMA at the end of 2007. The FCC is letting CIngular do this because they are running out of frequnecys and the analog and tdma technologys are starting to cost more to maintain them. That $4.99 Andrew mentioned is Cingulars way of trying to get people to change to GSM or UMTS and cover the cost of the older systems. Since I work on the tech team for the NE section of the US I am happy we are doing this cause you really can't do that much to fix a TDMA phone if it stops working. YOu can only manually reprogram them things so much before they have to get a new one.

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

I was surprised reading that you still have analog cell phones. Estonia is using GSM for cell phones, what is digital

 

[Tom Stefanac]

I was surprised reading that you still have analog cell phones. Estonia is using GSM for cell phones, what is digital

Digital refers to voice signals being digital. Analog cell phones use FM (frequency modulation) to make the radio waves carry voice.

Digital uses a different type of modulation to carry packets of data that sound like noises and crazy buzzing sounds. Your speech is sent through a vocoder in the phone which encodes your voice using a codec (sort of like MP3 or MP4 audio) and makes it digital. This digital data is sent from your phone to the tower and vice versa.

Digital has a number of advantages, over analog. For one you have caller ID and instant message functions which are not available with analog service, it is also much more cost effective for the service provider since digital cellular modes allow multiple users to use the same radio signal frequencies at the same time (more efficient) while with analog you can only fit one call or signal in the same amount of space. The last advantage is a lack of interference or noise from outside sources, since the voice signal is digital, your phone takes care of back ground noise and other issues you sometimes hear with analog phones. Error correction is also used in the codec to account for areas where the signal fades or data packets are lost for whatever reason.

GSM is one form of digital cell phone service which is popular in Europe.

In North America we have adopted CDMA, and GPRS/GSM.

Hope this helps!